New Running Time!

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

About a week into this Sparking thing (April 7)I was super excited because I biked to school, jogged a mile without stopping, which took 16 minutes, went to a strength class, and biked home.

Now it's almost exactly 3 months later. I bike to school regularly, and haven't had to change gears or walk my bike up hills since this summer started, and I do a few days of cardio and strength classes at the gym every week. I've lost 30 pounds, and feel great!

So today I was on my elliptical machine and was getting kind of bored. So I decided to stop at 33 minutes into it and time my mile. I haven't jogged a mile since April 7 (I prefer lower impact exercises while I'm still in the obese range).

I ran a mile in 12 TWELVE minutes! OH MY GOD!!!
OK OK...let's take into account that I did a full hour cardio plus 45 minutes of strength yesterday, and had done 33 minutes of cardio already today. AND I lugged my 200 pound self around that track, which has got to be harder and slower than people who run a mile with only 130 pounds on them.

TWELVE MINUTES!!!

Let's see if I can describe this...when I did the mile in April my GOAL was to not stop. I wanted to run a whole mile without having to stop to walk for a bit of it. This was a HUGE challenge for me! Every step of that mile was a struggle, I was dying to keep going by the end. But I did it, and I was proud. Today my goal was to "go faster" I pushed myself to run faster for longer than I ever have before. Keeping going wasn't the struggle, but not slowing down was the struggle. I don't think i have ever run mile in less than 15 minutes in my whole life! Even when I was a good 40 pounds lighter than I am now. I've always been a very very slow runner (I run slower than people walk), and I have asthma which is an added challenge.

Today I had no trouble breathing, and was running fast enough that the breeze (this was an inside court) was strong enough to cool me off some.

How awesome is that? It looks like this working out thing is actually doing something!!!!